HangryHippo: Where hunger, anger, media consumption, and satire meet for a snack

Food For Thought: Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy

The Washington Post “Local Living” section had a great article recently about “12 Ways To Make The Season Light” with tips from regular people who have lost weight and kept it off on how to survive the holidays. I couldn’t find it online, so I scanned it and thought I would share it here.

You Can Do It!

It’s definitely worth a read, and I love that they spoke to everyday people who struggle with the same temptations and tribulations that the rest of us do (instead of celebrities, who have personal chefs and trainers and food processors and…oh, you get what I mean!). The one Holiday Party that I made it to last week (before I got sick) was a bad, bad example of how tempting these affairs can be. It was for my office, and it was a buffet, and I literally piled my plate with mounds and mounds of creamy, saucy, absolutely delicious and artery-clogging food and then topped it off with a trip to the open bar. Ugh. Seriously made me feel terrible, and a really eye-opening example of how I need to have more self-control. Was three giant ravioli really necessary? No, one would have been plenty. So, keeping the above tips in mind, like “enjoy what you eat” or “make home a junk-free zone” are simple and rational ways to deal with the smorgasborg that holiday parties generally lead to. And, as I’ve somehow been more social in these past few months than in my entire 25 years on this earth, I have quite a few more of these to face, and I look forward to making better choices. And you can too.

Related

I think that the two “danger zones” are holiday parties and (for me, anyway), visiting family. Something about my grandma’s house – possibly the fact that it’s in a terribly cold place, coincides with the most stressful time of year, filled with lovely but difficult family members, or oh yeah is filled with processed food -makes me feel the need to hunker down with a giant bag of chips and watch TV for hours on end. But a lot of these tips are great for any situation, including a family-filled one…on that note, glad to hear you’re feeling better!